South Louisiana Marsh Blues

Michael Juan Nunez is an incredibly inspired songwriter

BY DAN WILLGING

No matter how you slice and dice it, 2022 was a banner year for Michael Juan Nunez. After years of writing and preparing for his then-upcoming album Rouxsta, the merciless pandemic delayed its release by three years. Finally, things fell into place. The pandemic subsided, Jazz Fest resumed, and the Erath, Louisiana bluesy guitar slinger finally released his best work to date among a stellar catalog—all deserving national airplay.

Nunez made his Jazz Fest debut in 2022, fronting a band consisting of organist, pianist and accordionist Eric Adcock, drummer Clint Redwing and bassist Chad Meaux. To say things went well is a bit of an understatement. Opening the Blues Tent on that opening Friday morning, the band received a rapturous standing ovation from a mostly packed house of enthusiastic, zealous listeners.

“It was more than I expected,” Nunez says. “We played our hearts out, and the people liked it. Everybody was ready to get their Fest on.”

“You know why that felt good?” asks Adcock. “Eighty percent of the people on their feet cheering, screaming and whistling weren’t from South Louisiana. They were music lovers from all over the world and connected with what Michael Juan and we were putting down. That was very validating for us.”

This year Nunez and krewe return for a second consecutive Jazz Fest appearance on Friday, Cinco de Mayo again, but on the Lagniappe Stage.

While Nunez doesn’t question why they were booked for a second consecutive year, he smiles and graciously accepts the honor. Adcock, Nunez’s longtime collaborator, duo partner, and former bandmate in Roddie Romero’s Hub City Allstars, has his thoughts. “That’s one of the beautiful things about Jazz Fest,” Adcock explains. “They keep their ear to the ground and invest in people who may not have legions of fans yet, right? But they give the people making great music a platform to spread it.”

The buzz about Nunez’s then-upcoming release Rouxsta undoubtedly played heavily into Jazz Fest’s decision to book him in 2022. Compared to his previous records, Rouxsta was made very organically in just two days at Dockside Studio with close friends and special guests like Nunez’s former band leaders Romero and Zachary Richard. His previous record, 2016’s Rise, represented two years’ worth of recording before it dropped. “Yeah, that’s a big difference, man,”

Nunez admits. “Left to my own devices, I’ll slip into a rabbit hole and drive myself crazy recording, trying different things, pursuing and mixing different sounds.”

“In records past, Michael Juan, for whatever reason, would chip away at them, a studio here, a studio there, maybe a living room recording,” says the analytical Adcock. “He often played a role in trying to mix and record things on his own, which he’s also talented at. With Rousxta, he was able to let go of the controls.”

This time Nunez focused more on deep songs rather than their production. “I was always really interested in the production, the guitar sounds and the playing,” Nunez says. “The older I get, the more I realize none of that really matters. You have to have great songs, period, you know?”

One of the gems of Rouxsta—though there are several—is “a Jimmy Reed-type thing,” an ode to the legendary Chicago blues musician/songwriter. Nunez captured Reed’s unhurried shuffle groove perfectly while splicing together lyrics from five of his best-known songs.

Nunez sees Reed’s influence stamped all over South Louisiana music. “You listen to Lightnin’ Slim, and that’s Jimmy Reed,” Nunez says. “You listen to Slim Harpo and that’s Jimmy Reed. Clifton [Chenier] often talked about Jimmy Reed. So, Jimmy Reed was a big part of South Louisiana blues, Creole and zydeco.” Nunez also includes guitarist Rudy Richard, who played behind Harpo on such hits as “King Bee” and “Scratch My Back,” among the Reed disciples.

“Jimmy Reed was the king back then,” Nunez says. “He was Elvis before Elvis. Eric Adcock’s dad said the first time he heard Jimmy Reed, he knew music was changing, that this was something new.”

Since Adcock is a pianist, organist and accordionist, one of his bonds to Nunez—besides living in Vermillion Parish—is songwriting, not guitars, as it is between Nunez and Romero. “You know, Michael is ultimately a guitar player,” Adcock shares about his musical brother. “He likes to crank that amp up and play loud, but Rouxsta has a bunch of sweet songs that are less guitar rock and more about the songs. And if I had to label it, it feels like a beautiful South Louisiana marsh blues record.”

Adcock continues by saying Nunez’s an incredibly inspired songwriter. “He comes from a very deep, intense, thoughtful place,” he says. “His inspiration from lyrics and themes is not light. He’s a thinker, and an observer, and that’s what makes him a great songwriter. His antennas are always up.”

Nunez remembers once talking to fellow guitarist and songwriter CC Adcock (Eric’s brother) about the process of writing songs. “I was like, man, how do I take the life around me, like the colors, smells, and the sounds of Vermillion Parish and put them into a song? Nunez recalls. “And he said, ‘Dude, stop trying, just write a song because you can’t. Nothing that comes out of you will sound like anything else. You cannot sound like you’re not from South Louisiana.’”

Profundity at its best, Nunez got CC’s advice. “I don’t have the talent to mimic very well,” he says. “My talent lies in being original and I can only be me.”

Being himself means being both a highlyregarded songwriter and a top tier South Louisiana guitarist. When it comes to the six-string, Nunez has been around them his whole life. His father, Warren, sang and strummed an acoustic guitar in his country band Warren Nunez and the Skyliners. His group used to play on a radio show on Abbeville’s KVOL. The group also played weekly on a local television show, hosted by Leroy “Happy Fats” LeBlanc. When DL Menard, writer of the mega-popular “Back Door,” made his television debut, he was backed by Warren’s band.

When Nunez started learning guitar, he pretended to play his dad’s acoustic guitar, a 1965 Gibson J45, still his favorite guitar. Eventually, his father realized his son was serious and began teaching him his first chords.

Nunez acquired his first electric guitar at age 14 and became obsessed with it. “Yeah, I was the cat that would sleep with it,” Nunez says with a laugh. “I’d literally take it with me everywhere. That was before PlayStations. Those were our video games, or at least for me and some of my friends.”

After his father died in 2000, Nunez’s brotherin-law AJ Dauphin took him under his wing and showed an interest in his career. Though Dauphin is not a musician, Nunez describes his taste as impeccable, something other musicians pick up on. “He’s my sounding board,” Nunez says about Dauphin. “When we started making records, he’d give me feedback. He could be honest with me when other people couldn’t be. He didn’t need to be nice, but he was looking out for what was best for me.”

“There were no ulterior motives,” Nunez continues. “It was just that I could trust him, and we just built a working relationship like that, besides our obvious family relationship.”

Dauphin has co-produced five of Nunez’s records (except America Electric). When it came time to review material slated for Rouxsta, one of the things Dauphin suggested was that Nunez sing in a lower register and play in a drop-C tuning for a bigger guitar sound. Rouxsta was recorded live in the studio, and no matter how good the musicians thought the take was, in the end, they looked up to see if Dauphin gave them a thumbs up or would come out of the control room with a suggestion.

Interestingly, Nunez never aspired to be a blues guitarist. That is until the dean of Lafayette blues guitar, Paul “Lil’ Buck” Sinegal, encouraged him during an early Medicine Show performance. Nunez, by chance, played a bluesy original instrumental. “When we walked off stage, Buck walked right up to me and said, ‘That’s the stuff you should be playing,’” Nunez says. “So, I took it to heart, and after that, we would get together every so often. Whenever I played blues, he’d tell me, ‘That’s the stuff you should be playing.’ And, of course, I became a disciple of Buck.”

“I love Buck, man,” Nunez continues. “He just really believed in me and my playing, and he wanted me to pursue the blues.” O